Cheltenham anticipated to turn soft on Saturday with heavy rain forecast

The ground at Cheltenham is expected to turn soft for Saturday's Paddy Power Gold Cup meeting with a night of heavy rain set to ease conditions at the track.

The opening day of the three-day November meeting on Friday was staged on ground described as good to soft, soft in places, but forecasters are expecting up to 10mm of rain throughout the evening.

Clerk of the course Jon Pullin said the track was fortunate to avoid a band of rain on Thursday while it stayed dry and sunny through Friday's card, but showers are forecast on Saturday and Sunday.

Pullin said: "I'm pleased with the ground. We were fortunate on Thursday as there was quite a lot of rain forecast and it stayed south. We got 2mm overnight but we had lovely jumping ground on Friday.

"There's a band of rain moving in on Friday evening from around 8pm and some forecasters are expecting us to get double-digit rainfall. We'll see where we are, but it wouldn't take a lot to turn it to soft from where we were on Friday now it's been opened up.

"Once the band of rain clears, probably around 10 or 11am, it should be pretty dry. We might get the odd shower during the day and it's a similar forecast for Sunday. But once we get through this evening it doesn't look like we're due for any significant volume of rain."

Saturday's seven-race card kicks off with the JCB Triumph Trial at 12.35.

A crowd of 20,151 was on track for the opening day of the November meeting on Friday, an increase of nearly 2,000 from this day 12 months ago. It continues a good start to the year for Cheltenham with a record attendance recorded for Saturday at the October meeting.

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